Jeremiah 10:1

Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: ISRAEL - The Jews, the surviving representatives of the nation....

Jeremiah enters here on a new subject. Though he had, no doubt, taught this truth often, yet I consider it as distinct from what has gone before; for he begins here a new attack on those superstitions to which the Jews were then extremely addicted. He exhorts them first to _hear the word of Jehovah; _for they had so hardened themselves in the errors which they had derived from the Gentiles, and the contagion had so prevailed, that they could not be easily drawn away from them. This, then, is the reason why he used a sort of preface, and said, _Hear ye the word of Jehovah, which he speaks to you, O house of Israel _(1) He then mentions the error in which the Chaldeans and the Egyptians were involved; for they were, we know, very attentive observers of the stars. And this is expressly stated, because the Jews despised God’s judgments, and greatly feared what were foolishly divined. For whe...

1-16 The prophet shows the glory of Israel's God, and exposes the folly of idolaters. Charms and other attempts to obtain supernatural help, or to pry into futurity, are copied from the wicked customs of the heathen. Let us stand in awe, and not dare provoke God, by giving that glory to another which is due to him alone. He is ready to forgive, and save all who repent and believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ. Faith learns these blessed truths from the word of God; but all knowledge not from that source, leads to doctrines of vanity....

CHAPTER X _The Jews, about to be carried into captivity, are here warned_ _against the superstition and idolatry of that country to which_ _they were going. Chaldea was greatly addicted to astrology, and_ _therefore the prophet begins with warning them against it_, 1, 2. _He then exposes the absurdity of idolatry in short but elegant_ _satire; in the midst of which he turns, in a beautiful_ _apostrophe, to the one true God, whose adorable attributes_ _repeatedly strike in view, as he goes along, and lead him to_ contrast his infi

EXPOSITION Whoever wrote the prophecy in Jeremiah 10:1 of this chapter, it was not Jeremiah; but of course, as the passage forms part of a canonical book, its claims to the character of a Scripture remain the same as if it were the work of our prophet. It is obvious at the very outset that it interrupts the connection; verses 17-25 stand in no relation to verses 1-16, but attach themselves most naturally (see below) to the concluding verses of Jeremiah 9:1. The author tolls us himself, as clearly as he can, that the people whom he addresses are free as yet (or at any rate have freed themselves) from the guilt of idolatry, and consequently cannot be the same as those who are so severely chastised for their polytheism in...

HEAR YE THE WORD WHICH THE LORD SPEAKETH UNTO YOU, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL. Or, "upon you"; or, "concerning you" k; it may design the judgment of God decreed and pronounced upon them; or the prophecy of it to them, in which they were nearly concerned; or the word of God in general, sent unto them by his prophets, which they were backward of hearing; and seems to refer particularly to what follows. k עליכם "super vos", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus; "de vobis", Vatablus; "super vobis", Cocceius....

Jeremiah 10:1. _Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them._ Among the heathen, if certain stars were in conjunction, it was considered unlucky; and certain days of the week were also regarded as unlucky, just as to this day, there are people who think that it is very unfortunate to commence anything on a Friday. There are a great many foolish superstitions floating about this silly world, but you Christian people should never allow such follies to have any influence upon you. Neither the fiends of hell, nor the stars of heaven, can ever injure those who put their trust in God. Jeremiah 10:3. For the customs of the

CHAPTER 10 The Vanity of Idols _ 1. Be not dismayed at the signs of heaven (Jeremiah 10:1) _ 2. The contrast: The vanity of idols and the Lord, the King of Nations (Jeremiah 10:6) 3. The affliction of the prophet and his prayer (Jeremiah 10:19) Jeremiah 10:1. The heathen paid attention to the signs of heaven, such as eclipses, comets, meteoric showers, etc. They were dismayed at these things. All they did, their customs and observances in connection with idol worship, was nothing but vanity. J

THE FOLLY OF IDOLATRY, This passage (like Jeremiah 9:23) interrupts the connexion of Jeremiah 9:22 and Jeremiah 10:17; its denunciation of the idols of the heathen as utterly futile for good or evil relates it to the times of Deutero-Isaiah (_cf._ Isaiah 44:11 ff.), and sharply distinguishes it from the denunciation of Israel's syncretistic worship, and the declaration of its penalty, found in Jeremiah 7-9. Israel is urged to hold aloof from the heathen religion of its environment. The idol is but a human product (Jeremiah 10:3 _mg._)

Jeremiah 10:1-16. The folly of idolatry It is now generally recognised that this passage is a later insertion, for (_a_) it breaks the connexion between Jeremiah 9:1-22 and Jeremiah 10:17 ff.; while by its omission the train of thought in the former is carried on smoothly in the latter; (_b_) elsewhere the people have been rebuked for being already devoted to idolatry (Jeremiah 7:18; Jeremiah 7:31), but here they are addressed as sincere and convinced worshippers of Jehovah, and are warned against imagining that idols are